Where are the July 27, 2007 SGM draft minutes, probe report on Gurbir-Rennie incident and internal auditor’s report, Mr “Hon.” Secretary?
Any explanation from you, the Internal Auditor Mr G. Vishwanath?
Less than 24 hours after we questioned (July 7, 2008) the outgoing Managing Committee (MC) of the Press Club, Mumbai as to why it had delayed markedly in making an announcement about the 2008 Club poll schedule, an apparently chastened Mr Gurbir Singh circulated among the members:
a) a notice for the AGM scheduled for July 25, 2008 (Friday) at 2.00 pm
b) the schedule for elections slated for July 26, 2008 and other details and
c) Annual report, balance sheet etc.
Mr Gurbir Singh has precisely proved the point we made in the said blog post that “despite having finalised the schedule for its first biennial polls at its meeting held on June 27, 2008”, the outgoing (MC) had been deliberately sitting over it since then. (Reason: the AGM notice out by the MC is dated June 27, 2008. Among other things, the notice talks about the club elections, slated for July 26, 2008 and it also states that the election schedule has been attached along with the notice).
Not surprisingly though, the MC has chosen to keep mum on why it delayed in announcing the 2008 election schedule. Nor has it answered any of the queries raised by us.
While we are not going into the issues relating to the balance sheet and contents of the annual report at this juncture, we would like to share with you some of the glaring errors committed by the MC in the notice for the AGM scheduled for July 25, 2008 and also its failure to share with members an important document it ought to have, along with the annual balance sheet. Here are some of the lacunae noticed by us in the AGM notice and other material sent along with it.
1) Shockingly enough, the MC has failed to incorporate in the agenda for the July 25, 2008 the issue of reading the minutes of the crucial Special General Meeting (SGM) held on July 27,2007, in which crucial amendments to Article 37 of the Bye-laws of The Press Club, Mumbai were made and the clause 3 in Annexure-2 of the Bye-laws – Guidelines for Development / Refurbishment of the Press Club – was amended. At the same SGM, two crucial resolutions --- the one empowering the MC “to negotiate and secure a line of credit/loan not exceeding Rs 50 lakh for the current rebuilding and refurbishment project of the Press Club” and another granting “leave / authority to offer the Fixed Deposit Certificates (FDCs) totaling Rs. 21,09,572.00 held by the Press Club in various scheduled banks as collateral/security for raising a loan not exceeding Rs 50 lakh for the current rebuilding and refurbishment project of the Press Club” were adopted.
In the first place, the MC – under Article 36 d of the amended by-laws of the Press Club – should have circulated the draft minutes of the SGM held on July 27,2007, within three months of the said SGM. The MC has failed to do so. Secondly, it should have at least circulated among the members now and made reading of the draft minutes of the said SGM a part of the AGM scheduled for July 25,2008.
For your ready reference, Article 36 d of the Press Club amended by-laws read thus: “The draft minutes of a special general body meeting shall be circulated within three months of that meeting. The same draft minutes shall be read out at the next general body meeting, excepting a requisitioned meeting”.
2) The tabling of a crucial inquiry report on the alleged violent incident involving member Rennie Abraham and Club Secretary Gurbir Singh, which took place on the night of August 3, 2006, does not figure in the agenda for the AGM scheduled for July 25,2008. This issue had been discussed in the last two AGMs held on August 25, 2006 and July 27,2007 respectively. We have been given to understand that the inquiry report was submitted recently by the inquiry committee to the outgoing MC.
We would like to know as to why the outgoing MC is hesitating to make public the inquiry committee report on an incident involving its own secretary Gurbir Singh and member Rennie Abraham. Making public the inquiry committee report on the said alleged violent incident – in whatever form the report has been written and submitted – is rather important, considering that it took more than one and half years for the committee to complete its inquiry and submit its report – which we are told contains just three pages. The report also gives a chance to members to discuss threadbare as to how the outgoing MC has handed the inquiry, in an apparent effort to bail out its secretary Gurbir Singh.
3) The documents circulated along with AGM notice like Annual report by the MC for 2007-08 and balance sheet, do not contain a report by Internal Auditor G Vishwanath, though the MC has duly circulated the statutory auditor Yatin Yavvaharkar’s report among the members.
The circulation of Internal Auditor Mr Vishwanath’s internal audit report was important, as he was expected to give an opinion independent of the statutory auditor, whose report is strictly official and brief in nature and it does not contain comments which an internal auditor – being a witness to the happenings within the Press Club – would have made keeping in the club’s long-term interests in mind.
The internal auditor’s report should have been circulated along with the 2008 AGM documents, considering that the MC has incurred a staggering Rs 1.19 crore on re-building the Press Club and projected a rosy picture in this regard in its annual report for 2007-08. For, Mr Vishwanath’s views would have come in handy for members to discuss the issue threadbare at the July 25, 2008 meeting.
In this context, we would like to know the following:
1) Has the Internal Auditor Vishwanath indeed submitted his report to the Press Club MC and the President of the Club?
2) If yes, why has the MC not made the internal auditor’s report as part of the documents circulated among the club members along the July 25, 2008 AGM notice?
3) Had the Internal Auditor gone through the club’s accounts for 2007-08 before the balance sheet was presented before the office bearers initially and subsequently the MC of the Press Club which cleared the accounts at its meeting held on June 27, 2008?
4) If the internal auditor had indeed gone through the club’s accounts, confabulated with the Statutory Auditor and also passed on his report to the MC, why did Internal Auditor Vishwanath and Pradip Vijayakar hold a prolonged meeting with the statutory auditor Mr Vyavaharkar at the club in the first week of July after the accounts were finalised and the MC decided the poll shedule?.
5) If not the MC which has reasons to hide things, will the Internal Auditor in Mr Vishwanath clarify as to why his report is not a part of the documents circulated by the outgoing MC along with the July 25, 2008 AGM notice?
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